In a bid to help improve the environmental efficiency of the thousands of Paragon planned trucks around the world, Paragon Software Systems has added a new Carbon Minimizer option to its route optimization software. The Carbon Minimizer enables users to further reduce the carbon and fuel content of their planned schedules, so cutting both carbon footprint and operating costs.
“The introduction of the Carbon Minimizer functionality reflects our commitment to providing customers with route optimization solutions that meet the needs of the ever-changing logistics industry,” comments William Salter, Paragon’s CEO. “We have been helping improve environmental efficiency within the industry for over 25 years by building efficient route combinations that reduce empty running, cut mileage and reduce fuel. We’ve now taken this a step further by adding a new Carbon Minimizer tool which enables transportation operators to look at the environmental impact of their truck routes as part of the planning process.”
Built on proven route optimization technology the new functionality looks at route efficiency in terms of fuel used and associated carbon emissions. “The Paragon algorithm has been extended to take account of truck weight and speed variations and the impact that these factors have on fuel consumption and carbon emissions,” explains Richard Street, Paragon’s Software Development Director. “As a result users can review and monitor the carbon and fuel-related KPIs of their operations, and can apply an additional optimization step to further reduce emissions and fuel used.”
The software estimates and reports the total CO2 and fuel content of all the routes and schedules, taking account of distances, speeds, weight and truck fuel efficiency. The Carbon Minimizer is then used as a final optimization step to adjust the schedules – changing call sequences and swapping calls between routes – to further reduce the total CO2 and fuel figures.
The software takes account of slower urban journeys incurring more fuel/CO2 per mile than faster highway journeys. Similarly, heavily loaded trucks use more fuel/CO2 per mile than empty ones. The Carbon Minimizer takes these factors into account to generate carbon-friendly schedules.
“Fuel consumption also depends on other factors, such as driving style, truck age, weather conditions and so on”, adds Richard Street. “But regardless of these, trucks will use more fuel per mile if they are heavily laden or traveling at slow speeds – so by taking account of these two key factors, Paragon is able to generate fuel-efficient and carbon-friendly routes and schedules.”
As a result of these enhancements, all Paragon customers can benefit from explicit reporting of carbon and fuel factors. Companies using Paragon route optimization strategically to analyze distribution scenarios will be able to make decisions based on expected carbon footprint, as well as cost criteria. Equally, companies using Paragon every day to calculate dynamic routes and schedules will be able to monitor their carbon KPIs, such as expected CO2 per drop or per ton. And in all cases, the Carbon Minimizer can be applied to refine the calculated schedules and further reduce the carbon and fuel content. “
The Carbon Minimizer is something that our dedicated in-house development team has been working on for some time and is built on our established route optimization technology which is proven to deliver benefits across a wide range of industry sectors”, adds Salter. “In these times of increasing emphasis on both fuel costs and the environment we are very pleased to have been able to provide additional functionality that helps users address both of these key issues.”
